Improvement in quartz-crushers



2 Sheets-"Shem 2.

D. C. AMBLER.

Ore Mm.

Patented June 20, 1854.

- Witnesses:

Inventor,

A M. PHDTQ-LITNELCD. NH. (OBBORNE'S PR D0 ESQ.)

D. C. AMBLER, OF NElV YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN QUARTZ-CRUSHERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1!,109, dated June 20, 1854.

To all whom it may concern:

I Be it known that I, D. O. AMBLER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and usefulMachine for Stamping and Pulverizing Quartz and Substances of a Similar Character; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings, is a full,

complete, and exact description thereof.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a View of the machine partly in elevation and partly in section, and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through the same on the line AB of Fig. 1.

The same letters refer to the same parts in both the figures.

In machines heretofore devised for crushing and pulverizing quartz there may be traced three distinct operations upon the material submitted for their action, and these three are pounding or stamping, crushing, as by the action of rollers, and pulverizing or grinding, as by the sliding of one surface over another. The common stamp operates by pounding only. The arrastra pulverizes only by the sliding of one body over another. A pair of rolls crushes only; but in the Chilian mill the material is both crushed and pulverized, the latter action being derived from the sliding of a portion of the periphery of the grinding-Wheels over a portion of the trough. In another quartz-crusher lately pat ented, where balls are lifted and dropped on the inner surface of a horizontal revolving cylinder, the stamping and crushing operations are combined. So, also, are they in another machine, where balls by means of a driver are caused to revolve rapidly in an annular trough. The centrifugal force of said balls causes them to pound violently upon the periphery of the trough, imparting to them a sort of bounding motion whenever they have rolled over a larger particle than usual. In the Berdan machine (commonly socalled) the crushing operation only has effect, and in no machine that I know of are combined the stamping and pulverizing actions. Neither does any known machine combine the'three actions of stamping or pounding, of crushing, as by rollers, and of pulverizing, as by the sliding of one surface over another. All these three actions, however, are necessary in the preparation of minerals for washing or for separating the metallic from the metal-bearin g particles, and competent mining engineers usually employ more than one machine, arranging them in a series, and passing the material from the stamper to the crusher and from the crusher to the pulverizer.

The object of my invention is to unite these three functions in one machine; and the nato re of the first part of my invention consists I in combining in a single machine the operations of stamping, crushing, and pulverizing by means of the combination of an annular revolving trough, with revolving balls set upon inclined shafts brought up to their work by springs or their equivalents, substantially as hereinafter described; and the nature of the second part of my invention consists in a peculiar manner of combining the operations of crushing and pulverizing by means of the combination of an annular revolving trough, with revolving balls located therein and secured upon inclined axles or shafts, substantially as hereinafter specified.

In the drawings, (6 a (t represents a strong annular trough whose interior is shaped substantially in the manner therein represented and whose center is pierced by a channel or canal whose upper end may be surmounted with a sieve. This trough is free to turn upon an axis or center step 9, and is caused to revolve by means of a belt encircling its periphcry; or by means of the shaft hit may also be driven through the intervention of cogs out upon said periphery or in any other convenient manner. Around this trough are located one or more strong uprights Z) Z) b b, and each of these supports in appropriate bearings a shaft 0 c c 0. These shafts liein planes which would cut the cylinder described byta prolongation of the trough in such manner as.

to form an ellipse. To each shaft is secured a heavy spherical hall 01 cl d (l, and between the brass on the lower journal of each shaft and the cap-piece of the pillow-block are located springs of vulcanized rubber e e c c. The brasses at the upper end of these shafts are either loose in their blocks or are fitted with globe-joints, so that the shafts may swing, and the lower brasses are free to slide in the pillow-blocks, so that the lower ends of the shafts may oscillate in radii of the annular trough, or nearly so. These springs force each ball against the side of the trough farthest from the center and are strong springs,

as upon their strength depends the intensity of the pounding action.

Rough pieces of quartz or other similar material are now fed into the trough, and it is set in quick revolution by means of the belt or otherwise. \Vater may also be admitted, if desired, and the feed of material must be kept up in any convenient manner while the machine is in action. As the trough revolves it by friction imparts revolution to the balls, and as the speed increases these latter are thrown off the sides of the trough by thelarge particles over which they roll and are again forced up by the springs. Each ball therefore soon acquires a pendulous bounding motion in addition to that on its own axis, and thereby stamps the material. This same material is, however, crushed by the rolling motion of the ball against the side of the trough, such action taking place in those portions of the surface of the ball not directly about its equator when the attaching points of the shaft is considered as one of its poles. At the sametime, however, that portion of the ball immediately about its equator is sliding or slipping over the trough, and thus pulverizes completely or grinds off small particles of quartz. This sliding motion arises from the inclination of the shafts. If they were vertical the rolling motion only would take effect, as each balls equator would then tend to describe and could describe a true circle on the inside of the trough; butwith the inclined shafts each equator of each ball still describes a true circle, but its tendency is to rise or fall, according to the direction in which the basin or trough is driven, and if the shaft were not deprived of end-play each balls equator would describe aspiral. The difference between the tendency to take a certain path and the being forced to describe another route produces a slipping,

sliding, or grinding motion, as in the arrastra. I sometimes intend. to increase this sliding grinding motion by placing a pulley on each shaft, and thereby imparting positive motion to each ball in such wise that any point on its equator shall move faster than any point in the interior of the trough, and I may in some instances make the ball-shafts vertical, provided each has the positive motion on its own axis, as above'described.

The imparting of a positive motion to each ball-shaft would therefore be the equivalent of the change of location or angular position of the same shaft, as the same effect would be produced by the same ultimate causeviz., the slipping of the ball along its appointed path. In this latter arrangement, however, the balls would not tend to stir up the material submitted to their action, and cause currents, if they may be so termed, in its whole mass. Such currents are produced-when the ball-shafts are inclined, as the whole mass then tends to rise on one side of the trough and fall on the other, and this stirring up is advantageous, if not essential, in the successful. working of the machine.

In some cases, where the material is ver T friable, or where it has already been stamped, I can produce a good result without the use of springs upon the brasses, the machine, however, will then have no stamping action, but will merely crush and grind in a different manner, however, than in machines heretofore contrived. As the material becomes finely powdered it will pass through the seive placed at the top of the canal and, dropping through the canal, will be deposited. If water be used, there will pass through the channel a constant current of water and ore in a pulverized state.

The springs may be variously located, and

springs, and would be the equivalent thereof I and may be obtained by locating a vertical shaft down between the other shafts and securing thereon one or more cranks, each crank being attached to the brasses surrou nding a shaft by means of a connecting-rod, or by attaching said connecting-rod by a stub end and straps to the shaft itself. In this case the shaft 7t must be omitted, and the trough may then be revolved by a belt or by cogs.

Having thus fully described my invention and some of the modifications of which it is suseeptible,I would state that I do not claim the revolving trough or the revolving spherical balls when said balls are not attached to proper axcs;-but

I do claim as of my own invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States- 1.. The combination of a revolving trough with balls located therein, said balls being attached to shafts, substantially as herein described, and having further imparted to them a pendulous bounding motion, substantially in the manner herein specified, whereby quartz or other similar substances may be stamped, crushed, and pulverized in the same machine.

2. The combination of a revolving trough with balls revolving therein by friction; but this I claim only when these balls are attached to shafts substantially in the manner herein specified, whereby quartz, &c., may be pulverized and crushed, as herein specified.

In witness whereof I have hereunto sub scribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

] (J. AMBLER.

In presence of SAML. GRUBB,

G. HANDY. 

